fix: ensure .env.local files are automatically loaded in bin scripts …

…and within importConfig

packages/payload/src/bin/loadEnv.ts

@@ -4,19 +4,21 @@ import fs from 'fs'
 import path from 'path'
 
 /**
- * Try to find user's .env and load it
+ * Try to find user's env file and load it. Supports both .env and .env.local
  */
-export function loadEnv() {
-  const envPath = findUp.sync('.env')
+const envFiles = ['.env', '.env.local']
 
-  if (envPath) {
-    dotenv.config({ path: envPath })
-  } else {
-    const cwdPath = path.resolve(process.cwd(), '.env')
-    if (fs.existsSync(cwdPath)) {
-      dotenv.config({
-        path: cwdPath,
-      })
+export function loadEnv() {
+  for (const file of envFiles) {
+    const filePath = findUp.sync(file)
+    if (filePath) {
+      dotenv.config({ path: filePath })
+    } else {
+      // If the file is not found via findUp, check the current working directory
+      const cwdPath = path.resolve(process.cwd(), file)
+      if (fs.existsSync(cwdPath)) {
+        dotenv.config({ path: cwdPath })
+      }
     }
   }
 }

packages/payload/src/utilities/importWithoutClientFiles.ts

@@ -4,6 +4,8 @@ import path from 'path'
 
 import type { SanitizedConfig } from '../config/types.js'
 
+import { loadEnv } from '../bin/loadEnv.js'
+
 const filename = fileURLToPath(import.meta.url)
 const dirname = path.dirname(filename)
 
@@ -20,6 +22,7 @@ export const importWithoutClientFiles = async <T = unknown>(filePath: string) =>
  * Resolve and load Payload config from either a relative or absolute path
  */
 export const importConfig = async (configPath: string) => {
+  loadEnv() // loadConfig would usually be run outside of next. This means they will not get next's automatic env loading here. In order to not force them to install dotenv and set it up manually, we can load the env for them here
   const isAbsolutePath = path.isAbsolute(configPath)
   if (isAbsolutePath) {
     const config = await importWithoutClientFiles<{ default: Promise<SanitizedConfig> }>(configPath)